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This has to be the coolest crime statistic website I have ever seen!  Data is for the City of Austin ONLY and the statistics are current and regularly updated.

If your neighborhood wants a "demo" of the website, let us know and we will be happy to help arrange it.

www.krimelabb.com - check it out! 

Laurie

512.299.6916

Breaking News

Increase in Upfront Premiums for FHA Mortgage Insurance

FHA loans with a case number assigned on or after April 5, 2010, will have a 2.25% upfront mortgage insurance premium. This is a .5% increase. Case numbers are generally assigned when there is a contract with a property address, and a closing date AND the borrower has committed to go forward with the loan.

Annual premiums (remitted on a monthly basis) will not change at this time.

Please go to http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/hudclips/letters/mortgagee/files/10-02ml.pdf. for more information.

Other changes to take effect in the summer:

New borrowers will now be required to have a minimum FICO score of 580 to qualify for FHA’s 3.5% down payment program. Borrowers with less than a 580 FICO score will be required to put at least 10% down.
NOTE: Most lenders will not make loans to borrowers with FICO scores lower than 620.

Seller concessions will be reduced from 6% to 3%.

Find out more at: http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2010/HUDNo.10-016

As Reported in the Austin Business Journal

According to www.realtor.org – IRS eligibility guidelines for the homebuyer tax credit when co-borrowers purchase a property have been spelled out.

When a homeowning parent of an adult child co-signs for a mortgage and both names appear on the note, the first-time homebuyer can qualify for the whole amount under some circumstances.

The IRS says the parent doesn’t qualify for any portion of the credit, but if the child hasn’t owned a home during the three years preceding the current purchase and can qualify based on income, he or she can be allocated the entire $8,000 credit.

When unmarried individuals co-purchase a home and only one of them is eligible for the credit, then the full $8,000 can be allocated to the eligible buyer.

It looks like the $8000 first time homebuyer credit will be extended along with the addition of a $6500 existing homebuyer credit!  HR 3548 has been passed by both the House and Senate and is just waiting for the President's signature to go into effect.

There are lots of questions as to what the changes are and I found some great information on the National Association of Realtors^® website.  You can see the synopsis at: http://tinyurl.com/ykkray5

Here is a list of FAQ's -

If you have any quesitons, please call us at 338-4483!

Laurie Loew

There a many things you can do to help save you some money on your utility bills and conserve precious resources. The conservation suggestions cost nothing and may even make your life easier! Most of the “fixes” cost less than $20.

Home Electronics

The energy use of electronic equipment often goes unnoticed. But as it turns out, an estimated 10% to 15% of all electricity used in American homes can be attributed to the buzz of electronic devices. The vast majority is consumed by home entertainment systems and home office equipment.

Unplug It. The simplest and most obvious way to eliminate power losses is to unplug products when not in use. Search the wall sockets in your house for hidden un-connected chargers and other devices that don't need to be plugged in. When you detach your cell phone or similar device from its charger, unplug the charger too. To simplify even further, plug all your chargers into a power strip and shut the entire power strip off. Electronics plugged into an outlet are still using energy, even when not in use. That goes for kitchen appliances too, like toasters and coffee pots!

Water Heater

Insulate Your Existing Water Heater. If your electric water heater was installed before 2004, installing an insulating jacket is one of the most effective do-it-yourself energy-saving projects, especially if your water heater is in an unheated space. The insulating jacket will reduce standby heat loss—heat lost through the walls of the tank—by 25–40%, saving 4–9% on your water heating bills. Water heater insulation jackets are widely available for around $10. Always follow directions carefully when installing an insulation jacket.

Dishwashing

Avoid Hand-Washing. Studies are showing more and more that, when used to maximize energy-saving features, modern dishwashers can outperform all but the most frugal hand washers.

Scrape, Don’t Rinse. Studies show that most people pre-rinse dishes before loading them into the dishwasher, even though dishwashers purchased within the last 5–10 years do a superb job of cleaning even heavily soiled dishes. If you find you must rinse dishes first, get in the habit of using cold water. The rinse feature in a dishwasher typically uses only 1 to 2 gallons of water.

Lighting

Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are a highly efficient alternative to standard incandescent bulbs. A single 20-watt CFL will provide the same amount of light as a 75-watt incandescent light bulb and last up to seven times longer. Because CFLs use less energy and last longer, you will save up to several times their purchase price each year through reduced electricity bills and fewer replacement bulbs. Worried about the mercury in the bulb? You can recycle the bulbs at the large home improvement stores.

Switch to LED Holiday Lights. Decorative LED (light emitting diode) string lights are now widely available in white and a range of vibrant colors including multi-color sets. These lights provide a more durable and low-energy alternative to traditional holiday lights. They cost more upfront, but use less than $1.00 to operate over the holiday season, compared to $5.00 for mini incandescent string lights and up to $75 for large string lights!

These are just a few of the many things you can do to save money and conserve resources. For more helpful tips and to learn more visit the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy website at www.aceee.org.

Join Give Realty for a fun night of learning about GENAustin
PLUS - check out Este Condominiums - the cool East Side Condos on 6th Street 

Special guest, Tony Cruz, Lancôme Makeup Artist at Saks Fifth Avenue
Tony will be giving quick and easy makeup tips to all of us lovely ladies in attendance

When:  Thursday, October 7th
Time:  6:00pm to 8:00pm
Where:  Este Condominiums - 2235 E. 6th Street

RSVP to laurie@giverealtyaustin.com.  Wine and hors d'oeuvres will be served! 

Federal Reserve report says 1 in 3 loan applications denied in 2008; lenders raised standards

• By Alan Zibel, AP Real Estate Writer
• On Wednesday September 30, 2009, 4:52 pm EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nearly one in three borrowers who applied for a mortgage last year was denied as lenders kept their standards tight as the mortgage crisis accelerated, the government reported Wednesday.

In its annual look at mortgage practices among lending institutions, Federal Reserve said the denial rate for all home loans was about 32 percent last year -- about the same as in 2007, but up from 29 percent in 2006. The denial rates for blacks and Hispanics were more than twice as high as the rate for white borrowers.

The report highlights massive changes in the lending industry after the housing market bust. Overall loan applications were down by a third from a year earlier, and were half the level in 2006.

Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration soared to 21 percent of all loans made last year from less than 5 percent in both 2005 and 2006.

For black borrowers, more than half of all loans were FHA-insured, more than triple a year earlier. For Hispanics, that number shot up to 45 percent, more than four times as high as in 2007. That was troubling news for consumer advocates.

"I'm hard-pressed to believe that many of those borrowers couldn't have been served by the private sector," said John Taylor, chief executive of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a consumer group in Washington. "It implies that the industry has shut down in serving this population."

High-priced loans with rates at least 3 percentage points above the rate for prime loans, shrunk to nearly 12 percent of the market from a high of 29 percent in 2006. But that figure mainly reflects unusually low interest rates during the recession, the report said, and understates the disappearance from the market of high-priced subprime loans made to borrowers with poor credit.

Last year, about 17 percent of blacks and 15 percent of Hispanics got high-priced loans, compared with about 7 percent of whites. Even controlling for factors that might widen that discrepancy, there still a gap of almost 8 percentage points between the number of blacks and whites who got high-cost loans.

The mortgage industry says lenders are not discriminating by race, and are making adjustments based on borrowers' risk profile -- such as their credit score and the size of their down payments.

"You still have a certain degree of risk-based pricing in the market," said Jay Brinkmann, the Mortgage Bankers Association's chief economist.

Lenders also scaled back dramatically on the amount of so-called "piggyback" mortgages, in which borrowers used second mortgages to avoid making a 20 percent down payment. Those loans have virtually disappeared from the market: Only 98,000 were made last year, down from 1.3 million annually in 2006.

The data, collected from nearly 8,400 lenders, is required under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975.